Ready for Round Two!
The Sierra Club Orange Hills Task Force has appealed the Superior Court judgment that denied the group any redress in its lawsuit against The Irvine Company and City of Orange. The original suit challenged the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) submitted by the developer and approved by the Orange City Council that inadequately addressed the impacts of the 4,000 tract unit Santiago Hills II/Orange Planned Communities development in the hills of East Orange.
The appeal was filed December 11. "We appealed after a careful review of the issues we believe merit reversal by the Court of Appeal," says environmental attorney Frank Angel. Those issues include, among others:
* The Irvine Company's late, cursory and self serving review of traffic impacts on Santiago Canyon Road. The review should have been performed by professional consultants independent of TIC, and the real impacts should have been included in the EIR to allow the public to offer comments.
* The EIR's botched alternatives analysis, which, contrary to CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), left the City Council with no substantially superior alternatives to the project.
Although the Irvine Company has never lost a lawsuit in Orange County, the Orange Hills Task Force is continuing its quest to compel the developer to conform to California environmental law. "We have appealed for solid reasons," says Angel, "and hope that, at long last, justice and the law will prevail in the Court of Appeal."